Canada-based Broadcast Services International (BSI) was contracted to provide technical production for the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Berlin. The sporting event, which ran Aug. 15–23, showcased many of the best track and field athletes in the world while also a special cultural program. To ensure success, BSI selected two Lawo mc²56 digital consoles to handle audio mixing chores.
On behalf of its client, Tokyo Broadcasting Systems (TBS), BSI purchased one of the two Lawo mc²56 consoles and rented a second. The purchased mc²56 console incorporated 48 faders, 240 DSP channels plus a redundant DSP card, 64 AES stereo I/Os, two MADI ports for connection to other systems and a DALLIS I/O frame. The rental console was outfitted with 48 faders, 144 DSP channels, 32 AES stereo I/Os and MADI ports to facilitate connection to the other mc²56 console and the sharing of system resources.
Jim Eady, BSI’s managing director, said, “The two Lawo consoles in the main and sub control rooms were set up to be mirror images of each other. This way each control room could feed directly to Japan during any session of the championships. The two control rooms provided mixing for a large variety of programs to Japan, from morning shows and sports news inserts to long-format coverage into prime-time shows. Each console was able to function as the main integration point or as a stand-alone [system].”
The Lawo consoles’ MADI operation, networking and router systems greatly reduced the amount of prewiring and audio DA’s required during the design, build and technical setup phases of the project. “The mc²56’s ease of operation and short learning curve was a huge benefit for this event,” Eady said. “After a brief boot camp on the operation of the board by our techs and a few days of technical fax and prefeeds, the TBS engineers were ready for on-air. Since TBS are purchasing a Lawo console for their mobile operations, we also arranged for a Lawo field tech to conduct training on the many other programming features of the consoles.”
The Lawo mc²56’s snapshot automation capabilities also assumed a prominent role during the event. “With three control centers and a marathon remote on any given day,” Eady said, “inputs and outputs needed to change quite a bit to handle the programming of a large number of different TBS stakeholders. The Lawo consoles enabled us to easily configure different profiles for each of these shows.”
